Kashmir dispute, a UN failure: Bilawal Bhutto

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said the United Nations had failed to resolved the Kashmir dispute while, “the Kashmiri people continue to await the realisation of the promise the world made to them.”

While addressing the National Youth Parliament’s session, Bilawal criticised the UN saying that much of the hostility in the subcontinent was due to the unresolved Kashmir issue. He went on to say Kashmir was, “an example of the failure of the United Nations.”

“We say it because we believe in the principles of international order, we believe in the fairness of the international world order that was created to respect human rights, to respect the right to self determination, and it was established to provide a just and fair world,” he said.

The PPP chairman implored the world to listen to Pakistan and its people. “Pakistan’s experience fighting terrorism, struggling for democracy and the brutal occupation of Kashmir show that had the world listened to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto and Pakistan, today world peace would be more than just a dream.”

Bilawal’s focus on Kashmir today builds off his recent remarks to his colleagues that if the PPP returned to power, the party would be able to wrest all of Kashmir from India. It is also pertinent to mention here that the PPP chairman’s remarks comes at a time when at least 17 people have lost their lives due to the skirmish at the India-Pakistan border, to which Pakistan has also written to Ban Ki-moon, the UN Security General.

Bilawal stressed that for any realistic analysis of the efficiency of an organisation, it was imperative to first analyse one’s own standing.

“I believe that the region we inhabit has become less secure than before, less peaceful than before and less tolerant than before,” he said adding, “Now can we hold the United Nations responsible for all the ills of the world? Clearly not. We have to take responsibility for our actions and decisions we as nation states made.”

The PPP chairman also emphasised on the transition of power to the youth — who according to him are the driving force and should be in charge of running affairs of not only their countries but the world at large.

“As critical players shaping the present and defining the future, we ought to be at the heart of public conversation,” Bilawal said.

“I am not going to talk to you as the youth, I am going to engage with you as the future leaders that you are, I am going to address you as you were the United Nations,” Bilawal said receiving massive applause from the audience. “We are the 9/11 generation, we know what it’s like to be called Muslims in [this] increasingly Islam-phobic world.”

Bilawal said it is his duty to tell the world that the history is repeating itself.

“We must learn from the age of fascism, we must learn from the greatest ideological conflict of our time, the cold war. If this generation is also cursed to repeat its history than I fear for the future of mankind,” he said.

During his address, the PPP chairman said that the current generation was the ‘climate change’ and ‘post recession’ generation which did not worship ‘the author of capitalism’.

“We tend to watch hopelessly as the word descends into chaos and the history is to repeat itself,” Bilawal said adding, “The world is borrowing up on our future; piling up largest debts and deficits in the history of man and expecting us to pay for their war and poisoning our planet.

“To all our elders, we are not just the youth, we are the future and we demand to be heard today. Either hear what we have to say or get out of the way,” the PPP chairman lamented. “Our generation, the next generation has the answers to your problems. We will succeed where you have failed.”

Bilawal said that a strong country was where people were educated and at peace with them or those around them. The next generation will not count on how many tanks or nukes we had made, he added.

While admiring the patriotism of Pakistan’s youth, he said, “We will not look forward to a strong authoritarian government but to a government by the people, for the people. Our generation demands peaceful, progress and prosper Pakistan.”